When Jon Erice was absent from the Vancouver Whitecaps’ bench in the second half of their Aug. 31 match against New York City FC, the murmurs and whisper machine kicked into high gear.

A rough first half, including a giveaway that led to New York’s first goal, gave a boost to speculation regarding the status of the team’s third highest paid player. Was he being sent a message? Was he sending one to the coaching staff? Had he left B.C. Place Stadium? Was there a rift in the locker room?

Erice came clean at training on Tuesday.

“I didn’t know the rule (about) the clothes. I showered, and I took my own clothes, so I couldn’t go out (on the bench),” the Spanish midfielder said, laughing.

“I watched the second half on the TV we have in the locker room.”

Was there a controversy?

“No chance. Not with me, no,” he said, smiling. “No chance.”

Trailing 2-0 at halftime, the defensive midfielder was replaced by winger Michaell Chirinos, the footloose winger coming on as the Caps switched from a 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1 as they played catch-up. Yordy Reyna did pull a goal back as the Whitecaps pushed hard in the final 45 minutes, but the Caps ultimately fell 3-1, dropping to 6-15-9 on the season and being mathematically eliminated from the playoff race.

“We felt at 2-0 down we had to take a little more risk,” coach Marc Dos Santos said after the game.

“And we know that probably with the course of the game, Jon would probably get a little bit tired because of the amount of ground and what he covered against Montreal, plus the trip, and he’s not 18 years old right now. So because of that we felt that it was a sub that we would take a little bit more risk, go at the opponent and that’s why we subbed him.”

In the 2-1 loss to Montreal, Erice was efficient, leading the team in passes (91) on 90 per cent accuracy and adding three tackles, two interceptions and, most importantly, zero turnovers. Three nights and one hellacious travel day later, Erice was nowhere near as efficient, and lost the ball three times in key situations. On the first goal, he didn’t see New York’s Tony Rocha lurking behind him, allowing the Pigeons’ midfielder to dispossess him. Two passes later, the ball was in the back of the net.

“I wasn’t happy with my performance against New York,” said Erice. “I didn’t like it because I missed an easy ball on the first goal. I can’t do that as a No. 6. I’m not the guy who loses those kinds of balls.

“I’m not allowed to do it as a No. 6 … but I made this mistake, and they scored. After, it was very tough for us.”

This weekend’s game against the visiting Houston Dynamo also poses a challenge for the Whitecaps.

Eight players had international duty the past two weeks — Doneil Henry, Derek Cornelius, Russell Teibert and Max Crepeau for Canada; Inbeom Hwang for South Korea; Ali Adnan for Iraq; Reyna for Peru and Chirinos for Honduras — and injuries have dogged the roster.

Crepeau (ankle) and Teibert (neck) returned home early and are day-to-day, while Erik Godoy, Jake Nerwinski and Victor “PC” Giro are also working their way back to full fitness.

The remaining international players are expected to trickle in over the next day or two, and fatigue is a concern, especially with Hwang, who sat out Korea’s friendly last week and has been frank about the challenges of maintaining his energy levels.

Hwang In-beom: "I've endured heavy workload in recent months on top of dealing with time differences after coming here. It's true, I'm tired, but I understand that no one here should be accommodated. I need to take care of myself and make sure that I don't make any excuses."

Erice would slot in the starting 11 should Hwang not be recovered enough for game time, and acknowledged the difficulty ahead.

“We’re working hard. We know that it’s difficult with just eight, nine players, because we have some injured players. With nine players only, you can’t work a lot of tactics for the next game,” he said. “We are working hard also to be fit. Most of us don’t play usually in the last month, and we need to be fit, we need to help the team in the next game.”

There are just four games remaining for the Whitecaps, but thankfully three of them are home dates. When Erice played in Spain’s Segunda División (Second Division), flights to games were a rarity, and happened no more than three times a year. It was four-hour bus trips, a hotel overnight, game the next day, then back home.

“It’s very different, the travel. I expected a big league here, because USA and Canada are very big countries. The worst thing is the (type of) travel we do, and I don’t understand some things,” he said, citing the three cities, three games and 14,000 kilometres covered in the last road trip. Facing a NYCFC team that was also well rested and hadn’t played a Wednesday game also irked him.

“It’s very tough, going from east to west. It’s not an excuse … I just don’t understand it very well. You play a disadvantage when you do that. In one or two games, it doesn’t matter. But after six months of that … it costs points.”

“You’re playing with your contract, with your family’s money, with your life, because you can go to another (lower) division. You play with a lot of pressure.

“Sometimes I miss it, because (here), you know you’re not going to second division. In the position we are now, in the last position in the Western Conference, fans are really polite. That’s different from Spain. When you’re in this position in Spain, you have to be … so careful what you say, what you do in your life, because they feel the club is part of their lives. And they can feel that if you’re there (and playing badly), it’s very bad for them. So they put a lot of pressure on you.”